Acesulfame potassium is one kind of sweetener widely used in foodstuff and beverage industry, which is characterized by good water solubility, high saccharinity, stable physicochemical property, strong synergized action and non-metabolism.
There are many ways to synthesize acesulfame potassium. A synthesis of acesulfame potassium is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,629, wherein the reaction between raw material sulfamic acid and diketene is carried out by catalysis of triethylamine, followed by conducting sulfonation cyclization with sulfur trioxide and hydrolyzing to obtain acesulfame potassium. Other patents disclosing methods of synthesizing include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,011,982 and 5,103,046. No special reaction equipment relating to sulfonation cyclization of sulfur trioxide and hydrolization has been found in other patents relating to synthesis of acesulfame potassium with sulfur trioxide as the sulfonating agent such as with respect to sulfonation cyclization reaction mentioned in these patents, generally, sulfonation raw material and sulfonating agent are added into autoclave for sulfonation cyclization reaction and the autoclave includes a stirring device to promote reaction. However, a cooling brine must be added into the jacket of autoclave during reaction to cool the heat discharged during reaction and control reaction temperature.
Research indicates that sulfur trioxide is a strong corrosive agent, oxidant, smoke substance and the adoption of common reaction equipment to carry out sulfonation cyclization reaction can easily result in leakage of sulfur trioxide, especially leakage easily occurs on the mechanical seal due to wear and tear by stirring. The leakage of sulfur trioxide may exert great negative impact on production and the environment since sulfur trioxide is a dangerous chemical product. In addition, only intermittent production can be conducted in terms of this type of reaction and the efficiency is low, while continuous production cannot be realized.